Sri Lanka Bombings – 3 Hotels, Several Churches Hit

Three hotels and number of churches were hit on Easter Sunday with bombs around Sri Lanka. At the time of this writing, there are 140 or so casualties including a number of foreign nationals and 600 injured as reported by the local media.

Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand and the Kingsbury were the hotels targeted. There were no reported attacks at the two Hiltons in the city. No organization has claimed responsibility for these coordinated attacks.

Here’s video posted on Twitter from the Shangri-La showing blown out windows:

Here is an excerpt from the Channel News Asia (access their piece here):

The toll in a string of blasts targeting hotels and churches in Sri Lanka on Sunday (Apr 21) has risen to 137, including nine foreigners, a police official told AFP.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said at least 45 people had been killed in Colombo, where three hotels and a church were hit.

Another 67 were killed in an attack on a church in Negombo north of the capital, with another 25 dead at a church in the town of Batticaloa, in the east of the country.

The first explosions were reported at St Anthony’s Church in Colombo and St Sebastian’s in the town of Negombo just outside the capital.

Conclusion

Sri Lanka has lived in relative peace after the long and brutal civil war with the Tamil Tigers that ended in 2009. There have been accusations of atrocities against the Tamils at the end of that war, however.

These bombings may have something to do with the upcoming presidential elections, set for the end of 2019.

I have stayed at the Hilton hotels in the city a number of times and also had my first visit at the recently opened Shangri-La back in November. I don’t remember any security measures being in place at these hotels. There are also a number of new properties under construction in Colombo including a Ritz-Carlton.